In what looks like a case of bringing coals to Newcastle, Domino’s Pizza Inc. has opened a store in Milan, Italy, with plans for another three by year-end.

The U.S. pizza franchise’s new Italian operation is being spearheaded by Alessandro Lazzaroni, a 36-year-old entrepreneur who recently headed the premium Italian bakery Galbuser. Lazzaroni holds the master franchise rights to Domino’s under ePizza SpA.

The Italian brand will use only local products, including locally sourced wheat for pizza dough.

“We’ve created our own recipe, starting from the original pizza recipe, with Italian products, like 100% tomato sauce and mozzarella, and products like prosciutto di Parma, gorgonzola, grana padano and mozzarella di bufala campana,” Lazzaroni said in a statement.

The big draw is Domino’s
DPZ, -0.72%
technology. The Italian market for online ordering and take-out pizza is not as well-developed as the U.S. market, even though Italians eat pizza an average of seven times a month, said the statement.

Domino’s acknowledged that conquering the Italian market will be a tough challenge for an American pizza company.

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“No major American pizza brand has successfully entered the market,” said Richard Allison, president of Domino’s International. “We’re going where no major pizza brand has gone before.”

Domino’s will offer the traditional Margherita pizza, which is a favorite of 70% of Italian consumers, along with other varieties, such as Napoli and Sicilian. Desserts will include tiramisu and other Italian favorites.

Domino’s had global retail sales of more than $8.9 billion in 2014, more than $4 billion of which came from the U.S.

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